Community Playthrough #55: Yesterday Origins

“Follow John Yesterday and Pauline Petit, a couple of immortals who own an antiquities shop in Paris, in an adventure through time and around the world. The story begins when a young John is imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition for sorcery and must use his cunning to escape the prison guards. This is only the beginning of a story alternating between past and present, recounting the origin of John’s coveted immortal powers.”

Welcome to the community playthrough of Yesterday Origins. You have until next Monday to setup the game and play through the prologue.

I enjoy playing adventure games on handheld systems- PS VITA, Nintendo DS and ipad mini.

Yesterday was far from an instant classic for me but I enjoyed it enough to buy Yesterday Origins as soon as it was released. I never got around to play the sequel/prequel though, so I am glad this community playthrough is on. I will install the game and finish the prologue within a few days.

I downloaded and installed the game from the MacGameStore and viewed the prologue. At the beginning it says that the game is best played with a controller, which I don’t have, so I’ll just have to muddle through with my mouse and arrow keys, if they’re needed.

I don’t want to rain on the parade (I might even join this playthrough), I’ll just use the opportunity to express my thoughts - I really don’t know what is stopping me from playing Pendulo games after I enjoyed Runaway trilogy - but Yesterday and Yesterday Origins didn’t seem like it would be my cup of tea, and I don’t have a good explanation why, even though I only seen the trailers and read the reviews. I think that the characters lacked personality, visually, as the biggest turn off. And the plot seemed way to serious for its own good. I might be wrong about everything, though.

Another point I want to make is to @Mikekelly - I’m thankful to you that you’re keeping the playthroughs alive, I believe this is the 2nd or 3rd time you’re leading it? Even when nobody else wants to take a hard job of being the playthrough leader, you already stepped a couple of times. However, for me it is not enough that you only copy-paste the game description from other site, and put generic screenshots. You’re not making the game any more interesting to me. I’d like to hear your thoughts, your personal thoughts, emotions, everything that is driving and motivating you concerning this game. What does it mean to you, how you felt when you played it the first time? You can look at some of the previous playthroughs around here, there are people that made my mouth watering out of excitement to start the game, just by reading their playthrough intro post. Take it as a word of a friendly advice - this looks way too generic, make the playthrough “yours”. I know it might also motivate me to join the playthrough.

Another point I want to make is to @Mikekelly - I’m thankful to you that you’re keeping the playthroughs alive, I believe this is the 2nd or 3rd time you’re leading it? Even when nobody else wants to take a hard job of being the playthrough leader, you already stepped a couple of times.

I’ll heartily agree here. Although I will also offer that it doesn’t matter how many times you offer to lead a game if the game you offered to lead doesn’t win. Which has happened to several people over the last few voting sessions.

Ya, I’m not as Ga Ga over this game as my other ones. So actually the less I express my opinions on this game the better.

I am playing it a second time, the leader does have to be in love with the game to lead it. I am hoping that reading other people’s opinions of this game and a second playthrough will make me fall in love with this game.

Lastly, even if I was in love with this game, why taint other people’s opinions with mine? I want to remain neutral and let others decide if the game is good or not.

Anyway, let’s play this game, here is a very positive review:

“Yesterday Origins is another entry in the good old point and click adventure game genre and is a sequel to the 2012 PC and mobile title Yesterday. I’d never heard of Yesterday but was up for taking a look at this easily overlooked genre.

You play the part of John Yesterday a man who is immortal but with no real memories of how this happened. In a unique take on this immortality John can age and die, but whenever he dies he instantly resurrects at the age he was on his first death. What this means in practice is that he looks to be aged mid to late twenties, but has memories from centuries past.

The story follows John through two time frames, the first being at the time of the Spanish Inquisition, which explains how John became immortal and the second being present day following John as he tries to piece together his memories. It’s a nice trick to play and it keeps the story fresh and often you’ll stumble across something in the present which causes a flashback to the past events allowing you to dive deeper into the origins of John’s immortality.

The story is also told with a nice element of black humour which managed to raise a smile on numerous occasions. All the dialogue is voice acted and of a high standard, being nuanced and well delivered throughout, there were only a couple of occasions where it felt less than convincing. Overall though I found myself becoming engrossed with the story and thought it was on the level of a Dan Brown thriller.

As with all point and click games the gameplay is very much about exploring your environment and clicking on objects. Mechanically things are pretty simple and Yesterday Origins does a nice line in user interface throughout. On any given screen points of interest are highlighted with the X button symbol allowing you to easily identify what can be clicked on , the ability to flick between them all with the sticks saves you having to walk up to each one. Your items are also accessible on your shoulder buttons and split into helpful categories. This combination of things means you can easily grasp what can be interacted with and prevents the frustration of having to walk across the entire screen hitting X on everything which has plagued other point and click games.

Once you’ve clicked on an item of interest a separate window opens up and you’re often able to pan the camera around the object to learn more about what it is, this is a nice little touch which allows a secondary layer of puzzle to be inserted into the game. You’ll want to be exploring the items too as often vital clues are hidden. As with all point and click games there is a strong element of puzzle to be had here with the items you collect able to interact with both environmental objects and other items in your inventory.

The puzzles are all of the same point and click mould, yet retain a high standard throughout. Yes sometimes they resort to trial and error, as you laboriously try each item with each location to see if they work together, but this is something which had always been present in this genre. The game also manages to balance the signposting of solutions while also allowing you to feel like you’ve solved it on your own, the moment I got the cryptic puzzle in New York I was happy to acknowledge the cleverness and simplicity of the answer with a wry smile.

Yesterday Origins is presented really well and has an art style which manages to convey the details of the scene in a clear way aiding the puzzle solving. The game has a decent line in music and the sound effects in particular give the DualShock 4’s speaker a hearty workout. I did experience a couple of niggles with the game with a couple of scenes stuttering, but overall the game felt solid throughout.

Point and click adventure games are never going to win over everyone and they definitely live or die on the story they tell. The game manages to tell a great thriller story and introduced me to some interesting characters and puzzles. With good presentation and a well thought out user interface.”

I enjoy playing adventure games on handheld systems- PS VITA, Nintendo DS and ipad mini.

I am playing it a second time, the leader does have to be in love with the game to lead it. I am hoping that reading other people’s opinions of this game and a second playthrough will make me fall in love with this game.

Lastly, even if I was in love with this game, why taint other people’s opinions with mine? I want to remain neutral and let others decide if the game is good or not.

Well, the leader doesn’t have to be in love with the game to lead it (but I guess in 90% situations the leader loves the game, or why else would he/she accept to lead it). But the things I stated in my previous post is not for you to make opinion about the game instead of myself, but to provoke my interest. Even synopsis (said in your words, not copy-pasted) is sometimes enough, or perhaps a screenshot you took by yourself, because those kind of things are the ones I’ve never read or seen before, and might be something I find interesting. Don’t be afraid to state what you think about the game - without making HUGE spoilers, obviously

I don’t want to rain on the parade (I might even join this playthrough), I’ll just use the opportunity to express my thoughts - I really don’t know what is stopping me from playing Pendulo games after I enjoyed Runaway trilogy - but Yesterday and Yesterday Origins didn’t seem like it would be my cup of tea, and I don’t have a good explanation why, even though I only seen the trailers and read the reviews. I think that the characters lacked personality, visually, as the biggest turn off. And the plot seemed way to serious for its own good. I might be wrong about everything, though.

I won’t be participating but I played Yesterday Origins and thought it was superior to Runaway 2 and 3. Although that’s not saying much…

Installed. I loved Runaway trilogy, but can’t say that I really liked Yesterday. As far as I remember it was too short and felt like a film with some gameplay rather than a game with cutscenes (it has been a long time though, so I might need to refresh that opinion)... Because of that, Yesterday Origins sat in my library untouched for a long time. I’m expecting feelings similar to Yesterday, so if it surpasses that, I’ll be pleasantly surprised and who doesn’t like to be pleasantly surprised?
Looking forward to trying it out.
As a side note, it’s my first play through but I find the idea interesting mostly when it comes to the games I have never played. It seems intriguing to discover them this way for the first time…

Same as DCast, I’m thinking of joining because I’ve had the game sitting on my self for quite some time, so it feels like a good opportunity to join a playthrough even though I didn’t care much for the first Yesterday (also for the same reasons as DCast).

By the way, if someone with a better memory than me would be so kind as to sum up the events of the first game, that would be much approciated.

the first game is like the first Matrix; a self discovery story.. the 2nd play on this immortality trope.

i liked the first one more but my words can not be counted as i never finished the 2nd; which relies on obsessive inventory sys with the possibility to over-cross-interaction of more than 3-4 items together, with the ability to disassemble them for different usage too. Also how each room held many close-ups as an entire new screen full of possibilities; sound good, but their stillness and the lack of real interaction there is what bothered me.

That said, i am planning to join in for the sake of silencing the unfinished-adventure-demon that is screaming in my head.

the first game is like the first Matrix; a self discovery story.. the 2nd play on this immortality trope.

i liked the first one more but my words can be counted as i never finished the 2nd; which relies on obsessive inventory sys with the possibility to over-cross-interaction of more than 3-4 items together, with the ability to disassemble them for different usage too. Also how each room held many close-ups as an entire new screen/room full of possibilities; sound good, but their stillness and the lack of real interaction there is what bothered me.

That said, i am planning to join in for the sake of silencing the unfinished-adventure-demon that is screaming in my head.

??? Pardon, would you like to try saying that again in a way that makes sense?

the first game is like the first Matrix; a self discovery story.. the 2nd play on this immortality trope.

i liked the first one more but my words can NOT be counted as i never finished the 2nd; which relies on obsessive inventory sys with the possibility to over-cross-interaction of more than 3-4 items together, with the ability to disassemble them for different usage too. Also how each room held many close-ups as an entire new screen full of possibilities; sound good, but their stillness and the lack of real interaction there is what bothered me.

That said, i am planning to join in for the sake of silencing the unfinished-adventure-demon that is screaming in my head.

??? Pardon, would you like to try saying that again in a way that makes sense?

dont you sometimes feel obliged to finish adventures that you started even if somehow you lost interest somewhere thru it?. it happens to me all the time an however time passed (i always keep my saved games) i must get to where i left them and finish them even if its after a long while.